Tangram Puzzles

When I was a beginning K-5 teacher in the 1970’s, my father-in-law introduced me to pentominoes. It was clear to me that there had to be some way to incorporate those in my teaching. It wasn’t long before I instituted a weekly “math lab” session for my students: every Friday, they had an opportunity to solve assorted geometric puzzles using pattern blocks, tangrams, and some wooden puzzles created by a colleague’s husband. (He also created the game of Pent, which was available for the students to play during math lab.)

I didn’t really like any of the commercially available pentomino puzzles, so I created my own for math lab. Those were quite a hit with the students! I compiled them into a book, which I submitted to Creative Publications, a (now defunct) publisher of math enrichment materials and manipulatives. That went well, and they asked for sequels. Of course, I was happy to create those. (Most are now available on my website. I link to all this at the end of the post.) As a result, my site is probably among the best sources of geometric puzzles and associated lessons for the classroom — at all levels, K through 12. However, there was one omission: I offered tangram-based lessons in Geometry Labs, but no tangram puzzles in the style and format of my other puzzle books.

I had been intending to fill that gap for many years. After all, tangrams are probably the best known, the least expensive, and the most widely available puzzles in elementary schools. There is no shortage of tangram puzzles out there, but I thought I could do better, or at any rate contribute a fresh take on this. I finally got started on this project a few weeks ago, and you can see the result in this book (free download):

The principles undergirding the book are the same as the ones that guided me in the creation of my other eight puzzle books. Here they are:

• The puzzles should range from very accessible to very challenging, and thus be suitable for a wide spectrum of solvers.
• Solving the more accessible puzzles should help prepare students for the more challenging ones.
• Puzzles do not have to be solved in any particular order. This allows students to chart their own path, and reduces unhealthy competition.
• The puzzles can be used before, after, or alongside lessons involving those materials, but they can also be used on their own, with no overt connection to any lessons.
• They do not require written instructions because the challenge is always the same: cover the figures with the available pieces, with no overlaps and no gaps.
• The puzzles are organized in thematic sets. Within each set, if possible, they are sequenced from easiest to most difficult.

In addition, I set some additional parameters for these puzzles: 

• Since representational tangram puzzles (animals, people, etc.) are abundant on the web and elsewhere, I would focus on geometric puzzles.
• In particular, I would prioritize convex figures, with the tangram pieces abutting each other along congruent sides. Those are more elegant, more interesting, and yield more geometric insight.

I am happy with the results, and I hope many teachers will get to use the puzzles in math labs of their own!

— Henri

Some relevant links on my website (each one will lead you to many others):

• Tangrams
• Pentominoes
• Supertangrams
• Geometric Puzzles

 And on this blog:

• Convex Tangram Polygons
• Supertangrams
• Geometric Puzzles Unit